Kiran Agarwal, an alumnus of London school of Journalism, started to write much later in her life. An author, content creator ,writer and presenter of an animation series channel WOKA which actually stands for WORLD OF KIRAN AGARWAL and is quite a rave today on You tube digital platform in various languages. Simultaneously, she did an elaborate course in creative writing which resulted in authoring and publishing of multiple books in Indian religious and cultural awareness, an area of her high interest and moral based short stories books for children. She developed a great interest in children related area of work and says that she is self-taught when praised for her in depth knowledge on the same.
What went in conceiving the characters? The ideas that come to mind while thinking about any particular character? And why that character is selected?
When I had though and conceived SABAK DEGI NAANI (SEASON 2) I was very sure of one thing and that is, I wanted to create characters which had a connect with my young viewers and simultaneously brought in the recall value so that the shelf life of my characters grew manifolds like how we revere tom and jerry or mickey mouse till date. After long sessions of discussions with my team and various marketing team surveys we concluded that we will have five characters and one special character of NAANI (which as a character is somehow missing in current generation).
AJ (Bear) DJ (Donkey) HUMPY (Hippo ) GORGY (Elephant) and ADI (Lion) were decided to be worked upon. Now all these animals have been used multiple times in various shows but there were couple of things we wanted to do. First thing first we wanted to use them differently, as in we wanted to create distinctive characteristic style with all of them ,which would primarily add to our story narration in this season and for other seasons that would follow soon. Secondly we wanted to create characteristic traits in them which we find in young children so that each child can relate themselves or get to like their favourite character with so much of varied choice.
So we made AJ the Bear as stylish, lazy and yet he has a feel of a superstar to him which maximum kids feel about themselves at the set age of 4-9 yrs.
DJ the Donkey was made to run fast yet think slow which makes him funny and popular with the kids as a lot of kids are impulsive with their nature. They want to do things correct but fast and that where they fall. But the character teaches them to move on.Get up and get going as DJ does. He also has humour which is very vital attribute in life to succeed. To rejoice ones own failure is a very good virtue which should be practiced by one and all.
HUMPY the Hippo is the intelligent one but lazy. He is the one who amidst all friends gives a synthesis between right and wrong. A strong contrast but very prevelant in some of the children today. Also we emphasize his slow walking ,we are showcasing subtly that children should be fit and not be lazy to do vital body exercises so that they can achieve more in life maintaining a good balance of knowledge (brains) and agility of body (physical fitness).
GORGY the Elephant is the happy go lucky one amidst them. Now so many children are like gorgy. They do not care what is happening around them. They are just plain happy with whatever they have and whatever they do. Yet when time calls for their participation they are there wholly solely and completely exactly like how our Gorgy is.
ADI the Lion is the brave one here, again like so many young children who are group leaders and are brave even at young age.
Naani symbolizes our cultural values that we wanted to be embodied with our story letting our children know that we (elders) care and love them.
Visit Our WOKA Channel on YOUTUBE
To watch episodes in english click this link:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8_CU10dPbDeJGKpEmF1_Aw
To watch episodes in hindi click this link:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgpskk9g3w5tX167AWmtsYA
